Human traffickers stopped rescue after sinking disaster, say survivors

ATHENS—A knife-wielding human trafficker prevented survivors of a shipwreck from pulling others to safety, leaving them to drown in the dark, one of the surviving migrants said on Thursday.

Up to 500 people are believed to have died in last week’s disaster, when an overcrowded boat sank in the southern Mediterranean. Just 41 people were eventually saved by a passing merchant ship and brought to Greece on April 16.

Muaz Mahmud, 25, from Oromia in Ethiopia, managed to escape the packed vessel as it was sinking and clambered onto a nearby boat. However, a people smuggler prevented them from helping others still in the sea, saying they had to leave immediately.

“I told him, ‘Don’t start motor, please, we have to save these people.’ He took a knife. “I am going to kill you, we don’t stand here,” and then I just cried,” Mahmud told reporters, speaking in broken English.

He had been with his wife and 2-month-old baby, having paid $1,800 each for the pas- sage. They are feared drowned.

The stories from the survivors and grieving relatives give a clear timeframe for one of the worst such tragedies in recent years, showing not just the dangers of the journey but also the relative sophistication of the human trafficking ring.

More than 150,000 migrants reached Italy by boat last year, with some 25,000 arriving so far this year. About 800 are believed to have died trying to make the crossing since January.